


Better Than Nothing

by nagi_schwarz



Series: Traveling Man [8]
Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-24
Updated: 2016-09-24
Packaged: 2018-08-17 01:25:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,456
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8125171
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nagi_schwarz/pseuds/nagi_schwarz
Summary: Written for the comment_fic prompt: "Any(/any), any/any, waking up next to someone who it turns out you have to work with."Season 7, post-ascension, Daniel grapples with the gaps in his memories and emotions and finds comfort in the arms of someone who he finds out he will be working with.





	

Daniel knows it’s stupid, self-destructive, but there’s only so much he can remember about his life before, and he remembers two major things: he’s in love with Jack, and Jack is in love with Sam. Jack and Sam have never crossed that line soldiers cannot cross. But another, more indelible line exists between Daniel and Jack.  
  
Daniel thinks he waited for an awfully long time. But then Daniel searched for Sha’re for longer than he was married to her, and he has come to realize that while he is capable of waiting for things for a long time, waiting for a long time isn’t always a good thing.  
  
Case in point: he and Jack got into another argument today, and he was torn between smacking Jack across the face and hauling him in for a kiss. Neither was an option, so he walked away. He drove down from the mountain and parked in his driveway, but he didn’t go inside, because he didn’t want to have to stare at the belongings that still felt like they belonged to a stranger, and whatever progress he’d been making with his own memories had been interrupted by having a boatload of other people in his head.  
  
So he got out of truck and walked, not caring where his feet carried him, and now he’s sitting at a bar sipping a drink and realizing, slowly, that there are no women in this bar. His feet carried him to a gay bar. Has he come to this place before? How did his feet know to carry him here? When he sat down at the bar, the bartender had seemed to recognize he was in no mood to talk, poured him a drink, and it was the drink he wanted.  
  
Daniel stares down at his tumbler of whisky and is very confused.  
  
“So,” the bartender says finally, “haven’t seen you in a long while. About a year now.”  
  
“I was...away,” Daniel says.  
  
The bartender - too young for Daniel but very easy on the eyes - says, “Welcome back.”  
  
Daniel bobs his head in acknowledgment and keeps sipping his drink. And he scans the room. Some men are obviously established couples, enjoying drinks together but not paying much attention to, say, the men on the other side of the room having a pool contest, or the other men having a dart contest, or the ones holding their drinks and standing around, shooting the breeze, wearing long jeans and short jackets and obviously on display.  
  
Daniel isn’t sure where he fits in, is pretty sure he had no one, carrying a torch for Jack.  
  
But then there’s a man sitting beside him. At an eyeball guess he’s a few inches shorter than Daniel, but he’s broad across the shoulders, muscular beneath his tight t-shirt, and even in the dimness Daniel can see he has blue eyes. There’s a hint of a tattoo beneath his right sleeve, but Daniel can’t decipher the design.  
  
The bartender hands the man a beer, and the man forks over enough cash for the drink and a generous tip, and the bartender smiles, like he would like to be more than friends with the man, but the man’s smile is only friendly.  
  
“What’s your name?” the bartender asks.  
  
“Steven,” he says, offers a hand.  
  
“Nice to meet you, Steven. I’m Jake.”  
  
Daniel flinches - he’d thought the kid was going to say _Jack_.  
  
“What brings you to town?” Jake leans on the bar.  
  
“Starting a new job,” Steven says.  
  
“What’s your line of work?”  
  
“I’m a surveyor. It’s boring, but it pays the bills.” Steven shrugs. He has great shoulders, and when he smiles, he has dimples.  
  
“Good luck at the new job,” Jake said. “Hope to see you around.”  
  
“Me too.” Steven sounds sincere and polite, and Daniel can’t help but wonder if he doesn’t realize what kind of bar he’s in, because Jake was all but batting his eyelashes at the man.  
  
As soon as Jake is down at the other end of the bar topping off drinks, Daniel leans in and says, “You know you’re in a gay bar, right?”

The smile Steven turns on Daniel is far too heated to be friendly. “I am aware of that, yes. Was just starting to admire the view, too.” He sweeps his gaze up and down Daniel’s body, and Daniel blushes. “I appreciate you looking out for me, though.”  
  
“Welcome.”  
  
Steven sips from his beer; Daniel is fascinated by his lips around the neck of the bottle, the way his throat bobs as he swallows, imagines Steven’s lips and throat otherwise occupied before quashing the thought.  
  
“I’m Steven, by the way.”  
  
“Daniel.”  
  
“Pleasure to meet you.”  
  
“You too,” Daniel says slowly. “Look, not to be that guy, but do you want to get out of here?”  
  
Steven’s smile is sweet and sincere all over again, and Daniel almost regrets his words, but then Steven says, “Sure.”  
  
Because Daniel walked, they take Steven’s car, a responsible dark green sedan, and they go back to Daniel’s place - Steven explains he has less than understanding roommates, which Daniel can appreciate, given that he works with the military. Underneath that black v-necked t-shirt, Steven’s shoulders are even better than Daniel thought, because he can pick Daniel up and pin him in place against the wall while they grind their hips together, and he can carry Daniel to the bedroom and lay him gently on the bed, and he can keep his weight from crushing Daniel even while he’s crying out in orgasm.  
  
Steven must work out or something, because he’s in incredible shape, and even though he’s only a few years younger than Daniel, he’s ready for round two after about an hour’s nap, and Steven isn’t anything like Jack, doesn’t sound like him, doesn’t look like him, but Steven makes Daniel feel good, and he helps Daniel forget.  
  
After round three, Daniel falls asleep, tucked up beside Steven and his incredible warmth.  
  
When he wakes, it’s because Steven is trying, very stealthily, to slid out of bed, but because Daniel is so accustomed to sleeping alone, he wakes.  
  
Steven whispers soft apologies, gives Daniel sweet goodbye kisses, and gives Daniel his pager number. He dresses, covering his glorious skin and sinful muscles with rumpled clothes, and a few minutes later Daniel hears a car start, and he lays there and listens to it fade.  
  
And then he gets himself up and ready to face his day (can he really face Jack?) and heads up to the mountain.  
  
Sam greets him, tells him they’re finally getting started on that mining operation to get some more naquadah to build battle cruisers, and Daniel’s not nearly as interested in the science as she is, but he nods and listens anyway, because he knows what it’s like, to not be listened to.  
  
Colonel Edwards is going to be supervising SG-11, a team of surveyors and soldiers - or both - and he wants to know if Daniel has any archaeological concerns on the planet. Daniel has none, just wants to be notified if they discover anything of archaeological significance. Sam nods, and they head for the briefing room. Daniel wishes they could have made a detour for coffee, but Jack is there to gladhand the new CO of SG-11, and Daniel knows he needs to be polite, so he shakes hands with Colonel Edwards, and he goes to shake hands with Edwards’s 2IC, and _shit damn hell_ but it’s Steven, only apparently Steven’s real name is Evan Lorne and he’s a USAF Major and also a surveyor.  
  
Daniel knows he’s blinking owlishly, unsure of what to say. Steven - Evan - only looks slightly less discomposed, but Jack just claps Daniel on the shoulder and says, “He’s always like this before his coffee. Major, go get the good doctor some coffee,” and _Major Lorne_ says “Yes sir” like a good soldier and is gone.  
  
When he comes back, though, the coffee he brings Daniel is made just the way he likes it.  
  
“Steven?” Daniel asks in a low voice. Jack and Edwards are reminiscing about...something.

“Close enough to my own name that I answer to it.” Evan darts a glance between Daniel and Jack and says, “I won’t say anything. And I promise I’ll never bother you again. But I had a good time.” And then he’s back at Edwards’s side and then he’s off-world for seemingly months on end and when Daniel does run into him again, he’s a good little soldier and nothing more, and Daniel still doesn’t have Jack, and Daniel wonders what it would cost, to turn back time so he could have Steven again, because Steven is much better than what Daniel has now: nothing.


End file.
